Jaulah Matruh-Siwa (Part 1)

Saat menulis entri ini, aku mengunyah kurma bersalut coklat dari Siwa. Sedapnya ya ampunn! Haha.

Pengalaman ke Kota Matruh dan Kota Siwa selama 3 hari benar-benar memberi makna yang cukup banyak. Dari segi sejarah ketamadunan Mesir Lama sehingga perihal budaya masyarakat setempat, aku dapat perhatikan dan pelajari. Itu baru sahaja dua kota dalam sekian banyak kota di Mesir. Benarlah apabila Mesir dijuluki dengan gelaran Ummu Dunya (Ibu Dunia) – dan kami warga Malaysia menambah “…wa Malizia abuuha! (dan Malaysia bapanya)” -- ni untuk melawak dengan orang Arab je.

Perjalanan ke Kota Matruh selepas tengah malam pada 28/1 mengambil masa lebih kurang 9 jam. Matruh ini bandarnya lebih maju sedikit berbanding Mansoura, mungkin boleh dinisbahkan sebagai Alexandria 2 (ada traffic light weh!). Populasi penduduk di sana sekitar 3,000 jiwa dan ketika keberadaan kami, Kota Matruh hampir-hampir lengang daripada pengunjung. Kota Matruh ini terletak dalam daerah Marsa Matruh.

Kebiasaannya, pelancong akan berkunjung ke sini pada musim panas kerana Matruh terkenal dengan gelaran “Bandar Seribu Pantai”. Tempat letaknya adalah di utara Mesir dan berhadapan Laut Mediterranean menjadikan pantai-pantai di Matruh tarikan utama pelancong. Aktiviti di pantai-pantainya juga lebih meriah ketika musim panas. Yelaa, siapa yang mahu mandi pantai ketika waktu sejuk 10°C?

Bahr Ageeba (Pantai Ajaib) dinamakan sedemikian kerana menurut kata orang, lautan dan pantainya akan berubah warna kepada warna seakan-akan pelangi apabila senja tiba. Bahr Abyadh (Pantai Putih) pula terkenal dengan keputihan pasir yang halus. Tetapi, apabila mahu bermain air di kedua pantai ini harus dijaga aspek keselamatannya. Ada sahaja dalam laut yang terus menjerumus ke dalam rekahan yang tidak disedari.

Selain daripada keindahan panorama lautan yang terbentang, Kota Matruh juga kaya dengan khazanah sejarah. Menurut catatan Mesir Kuno, kedua-dua kota ini sering menjadi persinggahan Ratu Mesir, Cleopatra, sekitar 50 BC. Kota Matruh didirikan istananya untuk didiami Cleopatra dan Marc Anthony. Sedangkan di Siwa menjadi tempat persinggahan Cleopatra untuk memanjakan diri. Di Bahr Cleopatra (Pantai Cleopatra) terdapat seketul batu berbentuk petak, didirikan sedikit jauh daripada pantai, ke arah laut, yang dinamakan Hamam (baca: tandas) Cleopatra.

Di dalam Hamam Cleopatra terdapat dua pintu yang ditebuk menembusi batu, yang mengalirkan air laut. Kiranya, di dalam batu itu seolah-olah menjadi jakuzi milik eksklusif Cleopatra seorang. Namun, tidak pantas seorang ratu menggunakan air laut untuk bermandi-manda. Air yang digunakan oleh Cleopatra diambil daripada mata air di Siwa, yang kini digelar Uyun Cleopatra, kira-kira 300km dari Matruh.

Cukup lah sedikit entri berkenaan Kota Matruh. Nak ditulis dalam perkataan tentang keindahan kota ini, susah. Lebih baik lah dikongsikan sahaja gambar-gambar disekitar Matruh. Selepas ini, lebih banyak lagi tempat bersejarah yang menarik di Siwa. 

Bahr Cleopatra. Gambar diambil dari atas rekahan lautan.

Di hadapan patung Cleopatra di Bahr Cleopatra. Pada topi Cleopatra terdapat ukiran ular, simbolik bahawa Cleopatra mati dipatuk ular.

Hamam Cleopatra. Kalaulah tandas sebegini jauh, mahunya Cleopatra mandi seminggu sekali.

Gambar di dalam Hamam Cleopatra (sisi kanan). Diambil di pintu masuk. 

Gambar di dalam Hamam Cleopatra (sisi kiri). Diambil di pintu masuk.

Gambar dari dalam Hamam Cleopatra (bahagian atas).

Bahr Ageeba. Yang dalam laut, warna hitam tu jangan main-main. Tu lubang yang tidak berpenghujung. Huhu. 

Abang payung gambar Bahr Ageeba lagi.

Bahr Abyadh. Style tangan 'peace' dengan 'thumbs up' jelaa paling common.

Bahr Abyadh (Pantai Putih). Fail la gambar ni. Pfft.

Celebrating New Year My Way

It’s already a New Year and we can see in so many places, celebrating New Year are always in a grand spotlighted event. Maybe for some other students including me, celebrating New Year’s Eve was not a best thing to do while we were in the exam season. Everybody was focussing all their efforts to save their semester’s result.

So that was it. My New Year had been restricted because of the exam and I was killing time with medical books and lecture notes in my hand. Nothing much to expect, though.

Not to add, 2 weeks later after the New Year, one of my favourite characters in Harry Potter series, Alan Rickman died. His death causes grief among Harry Potter’s fans worldwide including me.

Eventually, we managed to escape the exam. We were too excited when it comes to wondering what our winter holidays will turn into. I already thought of planning trips to several places in Cairo and other places in Egypt long before holidays start. Somehow, we were expecting all the happy thought about those trips, but how about days between those trips?

There comes boredom and we came up to do something to kill our time or to be precise, to waste our time. Watching several movies copied from your friends’ hard disk is probably most of us did when nothing else would give us as much pleasure as the movies would.

I tell you, those movies or sets of Korean drama are already not catching my attention anymore. I don’t feel a temptation to watch them over and over so then my time is wasted just by lying down on my bed all day long. But then, you seems to develop that goddamn laziness even when you have to go take a pee, you are going to consider whether you can hold it a bit longer or not. It is pathetic, though. Since when I really become one? Hahaha.

So I decided to get back to my reading list. I’m going to start slow so I reached my novel. It has been there on my bookshelf; untouched like forever. ‘Tuesdays With Morrie’ by Mitch Albom should be a good start, I think.

Guess what? It really was!

It is nice to read a novel full of life lessons (especially during the start of this new year) which sometimes are reflecting on small-small things in our life which also the ones we always take for granted. Life lessons regarding life, death, family, friends, emotion, love and many more are being told by Mitch’s old professor, Morrie every Tuesdays; or maybe the last Tuesdays Mitch spent with Morrie.

Morrie was a patient of ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) or also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. The disease of neurodegenerative which is terminal and lastly will lead to death. To simply know what Lou Gehrig’s disease is, it is like a patient that can sense pain but cannot response to the stimulus (cannot move their limbs or body away from anything that causes pain). After the diagnosis of the patient with the disease, 1 or 2 years more are expected for the patient to live their life.

After sixteen years of lost contact between these two characters, Mitch finally knew about Morrie’s illness from a midnight show that sharing some of Morrie’s wisdom and view about life. And then Mitch decided to go see Morrie, who also considers Mitch as his friend, and they made a deal that for every Tuesday, they both will discuss some topics about life. Morrie doesn’t hesitate to give his time to Mitch as he always been a giver himself.

For 14 Tuesdays they spent time alone. Exchanging views about world and life. In between stories on Tuesdays, Mitch reminisce their good days together back then in the university just to portray how close they were.

And for real, if there is any chance I have the power to force you to read a book, I will force you to read this one. I even highlighted some of the quotes because they are too precious to be ignored.

So next, I’m going to continue reading another Mitch Albom’s entitled, ‘For One More Day’. Now I know that I am so emotionally attached to Mitch Albom’s novels. Even sometimes I cannot hold my tears.

Oh nooo, what have I done to these good books which I put on the shelf unread?! Now I wish I would read them much sooner. But it always better than never, isn't it? At least I have something inspirational to start my New Year. Stay positive, stay optimistic guys! ;)